Tier 1 USA Hockey Nationals are set to start on April 3rd in 3 different locations for 4 different age groups. USA Hockey has just released the Pools for 14U, 15U, 16U, and 18U divisions for the national tournament. Each team will play three round robin games, with the top team in each pool advancing to the semi-finals. One bad loss in round robin play can really put you in a hole for trying to advance to the semis. Over the next few days we will break down the divisions for you and give our predictions. Today we are going to take a look at the 18U Division being played in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
18U Pools:
USA Pool
#1 Shattuck Saint Mary’s
#14 Victory Honda
#74 Sioux Falls Power
#3 Northwood Prep
Olympic Pool
#6 Central CT Selects
#2 Boston Junior Eagles
#69 Washington Little Capitals
#9 Belle Tire
NHL Pool
#7 Neponset Valley River Rats
#35 Iowa Wild
#8 Mid Fairfield Jr. Rangers
#24 Pittsburg Esmark Stars
Liberty Pool
#5 North Jersey Avalanche
#27 Colorado Rampage
#26 Anaheim Jr. Ducks
#4 Yale Bulldogs
By the Numbers:
Average Rank of Pools
USA- 23
Olympic- 21.5
NHL- 18.5
Liberty- 15.5
Combined Record of Pools
USA- 148-74-8
Olympic- 140-57-14
NHL- 119-51-7
Liberty- 157-55-1
Pool Record vs Other Teams at Nationals
USA- 14-10-0
Olympic- 23-15-3
NHL- 6-15-2
Liberty- 18-14-1
Avg. GF per Game/GA per Game
USA- 3.77/2.27
Olympic- 3.89/2.16
NHL- 3.95/2.13
Liberty- 4.15/2.03
This division on paper is going to be a battle, the field is led by the top 9 teams in the country, which will lead to some great round robin games. It seems as though most of the top teams can beat each other in any given game, which should make for a great semi final and final. The USA Pool seems to be the ‘Pool of death’ having 2 of the top 3 teams in the country in it. Shattuck Saint Mary’s will be the team to beat in the pool. The Liberty Pool games should all be great games as the teams in this pool have the highest GF/gm avg. and the lowest GA/gm avg. Get ready for end-to-end action with great goaltending. On the contrary the USA Pool teams are all high scoring and don’t give up a whole lot, so it will be interesting which teams can shut the opposition down.
Pool Winner Predictions
USA- Shattuck Saint Mary’s
Olympic- Central CT Selects
NHL- Mid Fairfield Jr. Rangers
Liberty- North Jersey Avalanche
National Champion Prediction
Shattuck Saint Mary’s
Best of luck to all 18U teams participating!
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